One Child, One Year, $21 Million in Health Care

One child, a $21-million medical bill: How a tiny number of patients poses a huge challenge for Medi-Cal

Kent declined to provide additional details. But she said that in recent years, Medi-Cal has had at least one patient whose annual medical expenses have reached between $15 million and $21 million. Medi-Cal, which is jointly funded by the federal and state governments, provides health coverage to 13.5 million Californians, or a third of state residents. State data show that the most expensive 1% of patients in Medi-Cal account for 23% of the programís spending. Ten percent of patients create 63% of total costs.